Blogging for a career can be iffy. The pay can be good, but sometimes it’s beyond terrible. The hours on a cushy blogging gig may be easy but in many cases you put in long hours with few days off. Also, because of the popularity of blogs there are plenty of everyday Joes (or Sallys) who get it into their head that blogging is a snap and start a blog project which means in some cases you could end up applying for a gig where you know way more about blogs then the client who hires you (frustrating).

The good news is that blogging covers a wide range of skill-sets. Both my partner in crime Deb and me believe that your blogging skills can be used for not only blogging, but other cool gigs. It’s all about moving beyond blogging when you need to. If you’ve been blogging a while and have handled multiple projects you may have picked up enough skills to also tackle one of the following types of gigs.

Other sorts of short writing pieces: This is a given. If you blog it’s a good natural transition to magazine shorts, online content sites, and online magazines that are looking for shorter but still snappy pieces.

Longer writing pieces: Personally I transitioned from print to web, but there’s nothing to say you can’t do it the other way around. Even if you haven’t written for magazines, newspapers, or other print media before, you may have a better in at this point if you have an impressive blogging resume. Nowadays online pieces are considered a little more professional than they have been in the past, especially if you can score some gigs at major online sites, with big blog clients, or with blog networks that are well-known. It’s also useful if some of the posts you’ve done are interviews with well-known experts.

Social media gigs: If you’re a good blogger you’ve likely spent a lot of time on social networking. Currently companies are starting more and more to see the pros of having not only a company blog, but a forum, a Facebook page, a Twitter account and more, and of course companies need folks who are media and social networking savvy to run the show. Lately, if you look at the major job boards there almost always someone hiring for a social networking / community manager guru.

Business copy: Business copy such as brochures, snappy ads (both print and online), company newsletters, press releases, and more are all things you can try if you’ve been blogging posts such as reviews, recommendations, and breaking news. If you can say what you think, know how to promote, and can keep it short and interesting, then there’s many types of business writing that you might be good at. Bonus, business writing gigs tend to pay far above and beyond what typical blog gigs pay.

Web design and blog creation: Not all bloggers pick up HTML, coding, and design skills, but some do, and there are people who want to hire those folks to build a blog for them, set up a blog, design a website, and so on.

What other sorts of jobs do you think blogging skills naturally lead to?